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drumhound May 2014
It was hard to miss Jerry
in the corner
holding court
over the bran muffin.
Flurries of judgement and wisdom
flying across coffee dappled pages
as he sentenced a large cup of
Paruvian Dark Roast
to be ******.

7 am Dan never flinched
steeling his tenured chair at
a spot one section of stir sticks away
calculably just out of reach
of the regularly scheduled tantrum.

An auburn-haired newbie
fanes camoflage
peeking over two pages of Obituaries
she never intended to read.
Her raised and nearly detached eyebrows
hover above the dateline like a magic trick.

And on every table fall
scattered leaves
of press print trees
unsorted and littered with intent
by careless absorbers of trivia.

Disconnected
ear-budded
footnotes of humanity
see nothing
hear nothing
using the disarrayed World News as
enormous coasters
unmoved by hyper-ventilating compulsives
pushing panic buttons through
desperate quests to uncover
one alphabetically organized set
of local news.

Of the papers not strewn
the remnant holds anxious
on a distant wall
a throng of flopping
rabbit-eared
step children
dangling precariously
from unaccomodating magazine racks
like smoky orphans from
windows in a fiery building.
Disordered.
Disrespected.
Discarded...words are
Jews in the holocaust.

Death of a voice.
We are irreverent in our silence
diminishing genius through apathy
put off by the imposition to be challenged
choosing disposable principles
above responsible knowledge.
Everything is disposable - cameras, cars,
relationships, loyalty, babies...and wisdom -
crumpling Pulitzer prize authors
and discarding WW2 veterans
just to get to the cartoons.
gray rain Apr 2016
I need to stop being so abstract
No one understands what I am trying to say
I need to stop camouflaging my words
because the message is interpreted in a different way
I need to stop disguising my thoughts with a mask
and say what I ment to say
I need to stop shielding myself
from people who I know will hate
I need to be free
but every time I try my words get caught up and the message starts to hide
and the only thing that gets lost is another part of me
but no one sees that because it's hidden on the inside
karen dannette Apr 2015
4/23/2012

Take me as I am
Or take nothing at all
Conditioned by my environment
To fight or flght or just take the fall

Prisms of light encompass the sin
Rays of flame burn my flesh, such agony
Yet here I stand, daring the worst
Causing temporary blindness, butnow I can see.

You seem unapproachable when you so desire
The pain will subside, as you severe my esteem
But that's ok, I've been through worse.
I'll take another one for the teame.

Wish you could truly understand, I am real
Every disaquise and camoflage I use to guard my heart you see
I've been so wounded in the past
And for me, only the true, I can truly be.

So will you risk it?
Or is there too much at stake?
Why do you lurk beneath the shadows?
If I let my walls fall, will my heart break?

You are so beautiful to me
Even if you don't believe it
I couldn't hurt you even if I wanted to
Open your eyes to the true love you can get.
Ottar Oct 2013
street walked on every day,
traffic in four lanes go both ways,
is there a place of peace and rest
or is tweeking happily
at a city bus stop of glass and silver grey
the best we can expect, with a cop and partner
                                       at a bus stop nearby, dealing with an angry young man but
she is dressed in camoflage she has more moves than a basketball
team while her man, her protector, garbed in matching clothes,
holds his head before it implodes, again
while she undulates and bends her spine,
and each vertebrae releases the next
      while her face remains perplexed.

                                             Just as is, mine. as it is only 12:17, just after noon.

Take the world at face value, the mist hangs heavy,
there is no sunshine on this misty grey day,
the mist is so heavy feels like rain anyway,
how did she get here with him,
betcha the bus driver won't let them on again,
so my mind wanders
                                 where in their lives did decisions and choices bring them to this point,
and why with all my missteps and listening to those voices in my head that I end up anointed
with a job that pays,
with a wife that stays, by my side,
with kids that give back to society,
with a grand-daughter who says "hi"
to everyone under the sun, under the mist,
while I under my breath,
I heave sighs, and "why Lord, whys?"
and a place I can vent AND A PLACE I CAN VENT,
when there is nothing I can to do help them
but pray.



©DWE102013
Ottar Mar 2015
working dirt, like it is easy
container garden on a balcony
planting so soon
to the tune of "No Frost Tonight"

except in the reception

of the signal of working
with dirt, nothing more
wholesome to measure
worth, there's only room
for one in the ***, me
or the dirt,

the perfect camoflage
to lay about the outdoor spaces
hiding in the open, hoping
what is buried there
is all of the past
and its many faces
Digging a hole, looking for a ladder to crawl into IT and leave whole...
When I look around
Sunset so clear
Not a sound disturbs
Pink rays , soft light endears
Thursday slips away
Behind trees soaked
In summer camoflage
And firefly breaths
The sky turns to liquid ink
Swirling stars
Rising and falling
Without the benefits
Of friendly clouds
All seems right
Like it did
A million years ago
Before they had Thursdays

— The End —